


your faithless love's the only hoax i believe in

by makemelovely



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Minor Mai/Zuko, One-Sided Attraction, Political Marriage, Politics, Power Dynamics, Sort Of, Unrequited Love, mai bisexual queen, sort of covers pre canon through canon to post canon, title from hoax by taylor swift bc it's tyzulas song, touches on azula's redemption arc but isn't primarily focused on it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25682056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makemelovely/pseuds/makemelovely
Summary: Ty Lee has survived Azula for a long time.//or, ty lee is more cunning than azula thinks she is.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 110





	your faithless love's the only hoax i believe in

When they were younger, Azula had let Ty Lee braid flowers into her hair, content to tip her head back and revel in the sun as Ty Lee combed through her hair, fingers gentle and chatter endless as she spoke into Azula’s ear. Mai had watched from beneath a large tree, her back pressed against the thick trunk and her knees pulled up to her chest, a book balancing atop her knees. Ty Lee braided Azula’s hair, but her eyes kept darting back to Mai, reading silently, her brow furrowed with concentration. Ty Lee watched Mai a lot, the way the sun shone against her dark hair, the quirk of her eyebrows, and the way her cheeks would burn if Zuko stared too long.

When they were younger, Ty Lee spent a lot of time watching Mai, and Azula spent a lot of time trying to have everyone’s attention. Ty Lee knew what it was like to be forgotten, and she may not know what being a princess is like, but she knew that Azula couldn’t be forgotten. Azula left an impression, an imprint on those around her. Azula burned herself into everybody’s memories, eager to leave a mark, the singe of fire and significance etched out along the brain stem.

Azula let Ty Lee braid her hair and she let Mai watch. Mai didn’t really care, if she was being honest, but Azula was convinced that if she threw Ty Lee in Mai’s face long enough that she’d care. The longer Mai stared at Azula with blank, uncaring eyes, the harder Azula fought. Never mind the fact that if Ty Lee had to choose, she’d choose Mai. Mai with the disinterest sparking off her eyes like comets, Mai with the shiny dark hair and the blank expressions. Ty Lee needed to impress Azula, but she had bruises and scrapes from a lifetime at the Crown Princess’ side. Mai would fold her arms over her chest and stare until Azula relented, her mouth twisting into a scowl, her eyes dark and heavy and angry. Ty Lee learned how to smooth her ruffled feathers until her resentments died to a dim spark.

Mai was everything Azula wasn’t. Azula burned brighter than any star, bigger than any forest fire, but Mai simmered. Mai waited. She was patient, and calculating, and while Azula aimed to burn, Mai aimed to cut. Her words were vicious and sharp and so soft sometimes Ty Lee wondered if there were secretly two Mai’s, but she liked the idea that Mai showed her soft spots to Ty Lee, and Ty Lee only.

When they went to school together, they shared a dorm room. The three of them, their beds pushed as far away from each other. Well, not quite like that. It was more like this: Azula with her bed pushed as far away from Mai’s, and vice versa. Ty Lee’s bed was placed in the middle, and each night she turned to face Azula, her back to Mai. To Azula it looked like loyalty, Ty Lee turning her back on the only person who wouldn’t bow to Azula’s power, save her father. To Mai, it looked like survival. Mai had the right idea.

To Ty Lee, it was a precautionary method. She didn’t trust Azula enough to turn her back to her. Mai, though. She trusted Mai. It’s complicated what you learn as a child. You learn who your friends are, but more importantly you learn who your friends  _ aren’t.  _

Ty Lee laughs at Azula’s jokes, and tells her she’s pretty, and tells her she’s funny, and she whispers words of flattery, of deceit in her ear and watches Azula believe it. Azula swells with pride and an inflated ego, powerful and in charge. Ty Lee learns pretty quickly that being on Azula’s good side opens doors for her that otherwise would remain closed. Azula’s seeming affection for her is useful, and Ty Lee holds that close to her heart for a long time.

Of course, it makes things hard with Mai.

“I don’t understand why you tell her those things.” Mai says once when Azula’s not in their room. She has special bending lessons after their regular courses. Prodigy problems, or whatever.

“What things?” Ty Lee furrows her eyebrows, tilting her head in confusion.

Mai looks at her, arching an unimpressed eyebrow. Ty Lee shrugs, turning away and beginning her history homework. Mai keeps watching her, her eyes heavy on the back of Ty Lee’s neck. Just as she begins to crumble beneath the weight of her gaze, the door swings open, Azula striding in with a proud smirk. 

Ty Lee straightens instantly, smiling widely at the dark haired girl. “Hi, Azula!” She chirps, sunshine bright.

Azula smiles at her, something warm flickering there. Genuine warmth, not the kind used for blazing fires but kindling, or maybe like the light in a candle or a fireplace. Something that gives instead of takes. Ty Lee has been friends with Azula for a long time.

Ty Lee has survived Azula for a long time.

She has learned to spot weak spots, and she has learned to capitalize on those weaknesses. Something clicks inside of Ty Lee’s chest, a recognition going soul deep. Ty Lee sees Azula’s weak spot, and she capitalizes on it. It’s what she does.

It’s how she survives. The next time she smiles, it’s with teeth. Azula doesn’t notice a thing as long as Ty Lee tells her how pretty she looks that day.

She works with what she has, and what she has is a game winning play.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The next school year, Ty Lee doesn’t go back. She doubts Azula and Mai do either. Instead, Ty Lee joins the circus. She packs her bags stealthily, taking the essentials and crawling out the window of her childhood bedroom that she shared with several of her sisters.

They don’t notice she’s gone until almost noon, but by then Ty Lee is long gone, and nobody quite cares enough to try and find her.

Not until a couple years later when Azula will find her, fire in her bones and her body and her eyes and her hands. In the flames, there will be a thirst for destruction, for mayhem and power and even love, in its most desperate form. Azula doesn’t do anything in half measures, but then again neither does Ty Lee. If she is going to do something, she commits. 

Ty Lee is amazing. She is a skilled gymnast and acrobat, and at the circus she hones her powers of manipulation. She has little need to see if people are telling her the truth. What she cares about is getting people to believe her, to need her and trust her and even love her if the situation calls for it. 

On her best days, Ty Lee could convince people the sky was orange and they’d believe her.

On her worst days, Ty Lee could convince people the sky was orange and they’d believe her until they looked up.

It’s all about image and conviction and the trust people will put in you. If you look like Ty Lee, they tend to believe you don’t wish any harm upon them. Ty Lee smiles like the sun, and her eyes shine brighter than every star in the sky, and she doesn’t look like a threat. She looks like the human version of the rainbow, all happy go lucky and charming in a way that’s easy, that’s natural.

She could convince anyone of anything. Except Mai. She could never convince Mai to love her, but that might be because Ty Lee never really tried.

At night, she thinks about boarding school. About the night Azula was gone for late night instructions she wanted to brag about without seeming like she was bragging about them. They had curled into Mai’s bed together, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. They talked about all sorts of things, staring at the ceiling so they didn’t have to look at each other and feel anything real about it. Ty Lee had confessed a crush on one of the girls in their year, a girl with light eyes and a dark smile, something grim and satisfied about her fluid movements, like she had been born angry and it had bled into neutrality at some point. Her heart had been a hummingbird in her chest, its wings spanning the length of space between her rib cage, fluttering against her bones at a speed that felt dangerous and dizzying. 

Mai had confessed the same thing. That a girl a year older made her skin burn like Zuko did. 

Part of Ty Lee knew that it would always be Zuko. The other part hoped that maybe it would be her.

The thing is that Mai has a type. People who feel too much, who feel everything so she doesn’t have to. They can burn themselves out until there’s nothing left but exhaustion so palpable it aches, and then Mai can soothe their heavy hearts with softness and a tender touch, her cold palm cradling their cheeks. They can rest with Mai, who doesn’t let herself burn. Her parents spent her whole life teaching her to numb herself to every emotion she could possibly feel, and it is through others that she lets herself experience things. 

Ty Lee wonders what Mai would show her, if she’d only open herself up to new experiences, to new feelings. She wonders if there would be anything, or if they would fade into a vague disinterest akin to what Mai already presents.

She doesn’t like thinking of that second part all that much. It hits too close to home. It hurts, something stinging and wounded in her chest.

Sometimes, the mere thought of Mai makes her heart ache, something tragic nestled in her veins and her bones and muscles.

Sometimes she’s able to forget about the gleam in Mai’s eyes, but the second she stops thinking about her something happens to remind her of the taller girl.

The worst reminder is Azula, who stands before her smiling, something fond and calculating in her eyes.

Something stiffens in Ty Lee’s chest, freezing in her heart, unfurling ice tendrils like some kind of sea monster. “Azula!” She cries out, smiling brightly because it’s all she can do. Azula is the Crown Princess, and she can’t deny her a thing. 

Azula recruits her for a daring mission, and all Ty Lee can think of is the circus tent and the people she loves here, who have embraced her and cared for her immensely. In the end, Ty Lee goes.

Azula with her flaming hands and her sparking eyes and the seething bitterness in her bones and her words. Ty Lee forgot what it was like to fear Azula, but it’s not a mistake she’ll make again.

This time, though, Ty Lee feels something else besides childhood fondness and fear and resentment and resignation warring in her heart. For the first time, Ty Lee hates Azula. It’s like something burning encompassing the entirety of her body, a physical being of vicious intention inhabiting her body and making a camp there, making her bones a home of hatred. 

Something takes root in Ty Lee’s rib cage, winding around her beating heart. She lets it.

  
  
  
  
  


Ty Lee laughs at Azula’s jokes and compliments her hair and tells her she’s so smart and funny and pretty.  _ Gosh, Azula, you’re just the best bender in the whole world!  _ Azula preens under the attention, and Mai rolls her eyes quietly in the background, something sarcastic twisting the corner of her mouth. 

Sometimes, Ty Lee wants to reach out and trace the sharp edges of Mai’s face until she softens beneath her fingertips. Metal that doesn’t bend, but melts. Ty Lee wants it so much it’s like a physical ache, the ghost of a pain and a lingering taste in the back of her throat, acidic and sweet all at once.

There are a million words Ty Lee bites back, a graveyard stuck in her teeth. She breathes and swallows the rising words down as quickly as she can because Azula watches her all the time, and somehow doesn’t see how she in turn watches Mai. She doesn’t  _ want  _ Azula to see that.

Azula looks at Ty Lee like she is the sun, scalding and warm and scorching, the source of everything. Ty Lee sees this, and she uses it. She simpers and whispers and shines doe eyes in Azula’s direction.

It’s survival.

It’s necessary.

  
  
  
  
  
  


It happens like this: Azula watches Ty Lee watch Mai who looks at Zuko like he’s saved the world or something silly like that. Zuko watches Azula, waiting for her to attack or lie or cheat. Mai touches his shoulder, and his gaze drifts away, clarity brightening his eyes.

Ty Lee loves Mai, and Zuko does, too, but Mai loves him back. That’s how it was always going to go.

  
  
  
  
  


It happens like this: Zuko leaves and Mai carves herself a new spine, made of steel and steady determination. The old one had become pliant, bending in noticeable ways. Now, her eyes are sharp and clear, narrowed with concentration.

Ty Lee thinks she looks beautiful.

It happens like this: Mai with her knives glinting in the sun, and Azula with her burning eyes and her hands drifting into an instinctive fighting position, her fingers twisting out of her fist and into the proper formation.

Mai’s voice ringing in her ears and rattling about in her head.  _ I love Zuko more than I fear you. _

Ty Lee’s heart beating in her chest like a skittish rabbit. She thinks of Mai’s smile and her careful eyes and her laugh like the glint of sun off steel, impossibly warm and impossibly cold.

She moves without thinking, and Azula is on the ground before Ty Lee can breathe, her heart slowing in her chest. The danger gone, Azula’s gasp ringing through the quiet courtyard. She can’t see Azula’s face, but she can hear the stutter of her breathing, the shock sparking through her entire body.

Ty Lee is at Mai’s side almost instantly, grabbing her wrist and trying to tug her away. Mai’s face frozen in a picture of disbelief, her resignation fading into shock. She urges her to hurry, but the guards are on them the moment the words are out of her mouth, their arms forced behind them as Azula is hauled to her feet, something bitter and scathing in her eyes.

Ty Lee doesn’t duck away from her gaze, instead lifting her chin to gaze defiantly into the other girl’s eyes, her secret resentment shining through for one moment. Azula breaks her gaze, eyes drifting to Mai’s as she spits contempt at them.

Her jail cell is cold, but the thought of Mai warms her.

  
  
  
  
  
  


She gets released from prison, and the first thing she does is have lunch with Mai. It’s nice, sitting across from her in a booth at a restaurant in the Earth Kingdom. Mai’s hair shines in the sun, and her smile is small, but so present it makes Ty Lee’s heart hum. Zuko holds her hand carefully, their fingers laced together above the table. The sight makes Ty Lee’s breathing stop every few minutes, but it’s fine. 

She adjusts to normal life pretty quickly. She sees someone for residual trauma. They meet twice a week, and she makes new friends easily enough. Suki is so sweet and funny and Ty Lee understands why Sokka looks at her like she’s the sun and the stars all at once.

It all changes when she gets the letter.

The people of the Fire Nation call for a new leader, and Azula answers the call. Nobody has heard from her in years since she was released from the institution she had been put in, but apparently she had kept tabs on everyone, including Ty Lee.

  
  
  
  
  


“You have to say yes.” Ty Lee’s mother says, her voice sugary sweet. “When the Fire Lord asks for your hand in marriage, you say yes. Think about the prestige we’d have. Don’t you want that for us?” She says.

_ No,  _ Ty Lee thinks.  _ Not really.  _ She imagines a world where everybody knows her name and her face and she’s not a copy of a sister who is the ghost of another sister. Something relaxes in the pit of her stomach even as her heart recoils.

A week later, Ty Lee sends her answer in.

They’re married a month later. Mai looks at Azula with disdain and contempt, and Zuko’s congratulations is genuine.

“Are you sure about this?” Mai asks, touching Ty Lee’s wrist.

Ty Lee wants to take the taller girl in her arms and hold her, but she smiles instead. “Of course. Trust me, Mai.”

“I trust you.” Mai bites her lower lip before reaching out and placing her hands on Ty Lee’s shoulders. It steadies her, as stupid as it sounds. Ty Lee wants to lean into her touch, but Mai speaks again before she can. “I don’t trust her.”

Ty Lee shrugs, careful to avoid dislodging the taller girl’s gentle grip. “This isn’t about her.”

Something like confusion slides over Mai’s face like a curtain, but Ty Lee pulls away before she can show Mai her heart in all its glory, its scars and its wounds and the way it still loves with everything it has.

She marries Azula and pretends she doesn’t wish it was Mai, and everything will be okay if she wills it to be.

That night she anxiously waits in their shared room, twisting her hands in her lap.

“Azula-” she starts to say, but Azula raises one hand.

“I spoke to my therapist before this, and he encouraged me to be honest about my feelings. I don’t think I’m ready to go all in with you, Ty Lee. I’m… scared.” She whispers the last word, glancing around as if there were spies lurking in the wallpaper.

When Ty Lee smiles, it’s full of relief. “I’m not ready either.” They get changed in silence, Ty Lee crawling into bed and curling into a ball at the opposite side of Azula’s spot.

Azula gets out of bed to shut the light off, glancing at Ty Lee as her hand nears the light switch. “We’ll wait until we’re both ready.” Ty Lee nods, and Azula flicks the light off.

Ty Lee steadies her breathing, focusing on making sure her breaths are even.

“Ty Lee?” Azula’s voice is soft in the darkness. “I love you.”

Ty Lee doesn’t answer, pretending to have slipped into sleep’s gentle embrace. Azula huffs slightly, rolling over and gently placing her hand near Ty Lee’s body, as if hopeful that Ty Lee will take her hand.

In the morning, Azula lays with her hand still outstretched. Ty Lee’s limbs are stiff from her night spent curled into a ball, knees pulled up to her chest and her arms encircling her legs protectively.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


It gets easier to pretend, to lie to Azula and imitate her happiness as if Ty Lee shares it. She laughs at her jokes and compliments her and it’s like before except without all the fighting and Azula compliments her back, her mouth twisting oddly into smiles at weird times and her voice stuttering awkwardly at times. 

When Azula says I love you, Ty Lee says it back, and she doesn’t flinch.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Azula says once, hands gently working through a braid. It’s a complex one, and Ty Lee lets her do what she wants. She hums her consent, tipping her head back so the weight of her skull is cradled in Azula’s palms. She’ll notice the gesture, and she’ll appreciate it.

“I’m not going to be Fire Lord forever.” Ty Lee’s heart stops in her chest, surprise bursting in her stomach like fireworks. “The Avatar and I spoke at length about it during one of our meetings. We agreed that once the Nation settles down some and becomes less politically charged that we’ll instate a better system to help prevent another atrocity.”

“You agreed to that?” Ty Lee fights to keep the surprise out of her voice, but it must not work very well because Azula laughs, the sound low and warm.

“I have selfish motives, I must admit. I’m not happy as Fire Lord. I thought I would be, but I spent too much of my life chasing to be my father’s heir to the throne that it ruined any appeal the position may have held for me. The pursuit of my father’s love led me to being Fire Lord, conceptually speaking. I wanted it because I thought it would prove that he loved me, but he never did.” Azula shakes her head, her hands shaking as she threads them through Ty Lee’s long hair. “Nobody ever loved me. Not while I was like that.” Azula tilts her head to meet Ty Lee’s eyes, her gaze searching. “Only you did. Only ever you.”

If Ty Lee were a sweeter person, she would let her heart click into place and let her resentments go, but in Azula’s eyes is a fire, like the kind that ruins circus shows. She smiles, reaches up and brushes her hand along her face, cupping Azula’s cheek. “I always will.” She says, and Azula’s eyes close as she leans into her touch.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


(“I didn’t know you and Aang were friends.” Ty Lee will say later.

Azula will shrug, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “We’re not friends, but maybe someday we will be.”)

  
  
  
  
  
  


Sometimes Azula has nightmares, her whole body shaking and writhing in bed, awful terrible screams torn from her throat in the dead of night.

Ty Lee will hold her until morning, something splintering and sinking in her chest, Azula’s sobs quieting as the sun will break through the windows. It is both an obligation and a desire.

Ty Lee never claimed to know everything.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Azula asks her once, her voice soft in the darkness. “You love me, right? You love me.” Ty Lee doesn’t know who she’s trying to convince.

Ty Lee reaches out in the darkness, her thumb stroking Azula’s cheek. “Of course I do.” In the cover of darkness, Ty Lee’s eyes go cold. “Would I lie to you?”

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i want to take a second to sort of explain this?? i read some meta about ty lee essentially faking everything with azula which is smart bc azula genuinely cares about ty lee and i thought it might be fun to explore especially since i am a tyzula stan so i obviously think they're gfs who love each other very much.
> 
> okay my second explanation is about the power imbalance mentioned. so ty lee doesn't love azula but she accepts her marriage proposal bc she feels like she has to based on parental pressure, but it isn't azula's idea to pressure her into it. i imagine azula's thought process is "i've only ever loved ty lee and she was so nice she had to have loved me back" so basically azula is trying to make amends w the girl she loves while also struggling still w her redemption arc. it's not easy and she has a lot she hasn't addressed that ty lee needs to hear so ty lee's still in survival mode even tho azula doesn't want to hurt ty lee or anyone anymore. it's like this:
> 
> azula: yes everybody hated me yes i deserved it yes i think ty lee loved me the whole time. why? did she-did she not?


End file.
